AMBER GUYGER CASE KEY WITNESS MURDERED AFTER HER GUILTY CONVICTION (JOSHUA BROWN):
WHITE DALLAS CITY COUNCIL MEMBER LOSES ELECTION AFTER EXPOSING DALLAS POLICE DEPT COVER UP (PHILLIP KINGSTON).
“WE’VE GOT SOME LONG DAYS AHEAD OF US” (DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR).
WE NEED TO PRAY FOR THE USA AND PREPARE FOR NOVEMBER 2020.
DEAR LORD, GIVE US WISDOM & STRATEGIES.
Post Sources: BallotPedia, CBS News, Fox News, Dallas News, Status Coup, TIME, WFAA, Youtube
******* Key Witness in Amber Guyger Murder Case Fatally Shot Days After Emotional Trial Wraps Up
Less than three days after ex-Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murdering Botham Jean in his own apartment, a key witness in the case was fatally shot.
Joshua Brown was killed Friday night at a Dallas apartment complex, as confirmed to TIME and originally reported by the Dallas Morning News.
The Dallas Police Department told TIME that law enforcement responded to a report of a shooting at a Dallas apartment complex just after 10:30 p.m. on Friday and found the victim “lying on the ground in the apartment parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds,” but did not identity the victim.
Spokesperson Kimberlee Leach with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to TIME that the victim was Brown.
The victim died from his injuries at Parkland Memorial Hospital, police said in a statement.
Several witnesses had heard gunshots and noticed a silver four-door sedan speeding away from the parking lot, police said.
But authorities did not provide more details about the suspect and noted that no one is currently in custody.
Brown, who was also Jean’s neighbor, testified during Guyger’s trial that he met Jean for the first time the same day that he was shot on Sept. 6, 2018.
After talking in his testimony about how he would hear Jean singing gospel or Drake songs inside his apartment, Brown became emotional and had to take a break from questioning.
Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who represented the Jean family during trial, has spoken extensively on social media about Brown’s death, and said “his murder underscores the reality of the black experience in America.”
“A former athlete turned entrepreneur—Brown lived in constant fear that he could be the next victim of gun violence,” Merritt said, adding that Brown’s mother asked that he “do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of his murder.”
Brown’s death has also elicited concern from politicians. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Sunday that “just when when we caught a glimpse of justice for Botham Jean, much of it feels stolen back with the murder of Joshua Brown.”
**** Dallas City Council Member On Officer Shooting Investigation: DA ‘Screwing This Up’ (Circa 2018)
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A Dallas city councilman is demanding 911 calls and any police videos be released in the case involving former officer Amber Guyger’s deadly shooting of Botham Jean in his apartment last month.
Councilman Philip Kingston said he is unhappy with the way the investigation into the Botham Jean shooting is being handled, going so far as to accuse Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson of, “screwing this up.”
Kingston responded to news the DA will not release 911 calls, radio calls or any possible police body cam videos that exist or Amber Guyger’s personnel records during her time as an officer.
The transmissions made by Guyger in the moments after the shooting are key evidence to prove or disprove her story that she mistakenly walked into the wrong apartment directly above hers at the South Side Flats and mistook Botham Jean for a burglar when she shot and killed him.
Kingston told CBS 11 after Wednesday’s city council meeting, it makes the city look bad that nearly a month after the shooting so little information is being released.
He blames Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall and DA Johnson.
“I think the investigation is over and I think we need to start being transparent with the information these decision makers are looking at because they’ve all said we want transparency, we want transparency, we want transparency, but they’re actions are 180 degrees from that,” said Kingston.
CBS11 received a response from the DA’s office which said Kingston’s comments would only fuel the argument for a change of venue in the case if there’s an indictment and trial:
“Case law regarding venue change mandates no pretrial release of evidence that could influence potential jurors and render them unable to return a fair and impartial verdict in any potential criminal trial.
See e.g. Gonzalez v. State, 222 S.W. 3d 446.
This law includes non-disclosure of all of the described.
This potential case should be tried in Dallas County, not some contiguous county where the interests of justice are not as compelling.
The DAs office is following the law in its effort to seek fair and impartial jurors in any potential trial regarding this tragic matter.”
In the wake of the Cosby verdict, former Ebony editor-in-chief Kierna Mayo reflects on her “shattered glass” Cosby Show cover and how it highlighted a great divide.
Wednesday, when the news broke, my stomach reacted first. I was home writing when the CNN ticker flashed:
"COSBY FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS."
The rush of emotions that followed was confusing, not fully placeable if you will. I texted a few friends (COSBY!!!!) and then I sunk back into my sofa, heart racing, belly in knots. What the hell is wrong with you? began the internal talk. I just wanted to understand the sensation. I needed to feel something less indecipherable. My nerves were a wrap; I reached for the vape.
Two years ago, after the soul-stirring funeral of a friend’s beloved mother, a glamorous, gorgeous, silver-haired black woman of a certain age approached me in a parking lot filled with hundreds of mourners. She stopped right in my face and grabbed my hand.
“I wanted to send you roses,” she said.
Initially, I had no response. I had no idea who she was, and no idea what she meant. I was frozen; struck partly by her unique beauty, but mostly by her odd comment and sheer intensity. Lady, I’m emotionally spent, I didn’t quite get out.
“Thank you so much. For that cover. For supporting me. I was one of his victims.”
One. Of. His. Victims. All of a sudden it clicked. She was talking about Bill Cosby. The cover she was referring to was the November 2015 issue of Ebony magazine. I was its editor-in-chief at the time. After a raucous debate about what image should cover our “family” issue, a staff member suggested The Cosby Show. The sexual assault accusations against Cosby had been pouring in by the day. First five women, then 12, then 30 and so forth.
As journalists, we were steeped in discussion about it for months; the entire black community had been. The problem was that there was a deep divide: those who were inclined to believe the women and wholly rejected Cosby’s social status as a reason to think he was incapable of the crime, and those who believed that white women, with the help of some black women, acted as agents of “the white man” and were all conspiring against an otherwise standup family dude, also known as Dr. Cliff Huxtable.
The magazine cover, featuring a classic shot of the original Cosby Show cast, was dropped with a press release, and before the issue hit stands I was being booked on cable news shows. The sweet image of that darling black T.V. family under an overlay of shattered glass (the crack began over Cosby’s face) struck a chord. As editors, we were attempting to capture a cultural moment: the Cosby Show mattered to America, to black America, but the black “respectability politics” that it trumpeted, for better or for worse, was being metaphorically challenged by the crimes of its star. Something about this perfect black family image was cracked, something was indeed shattered, and Ebony didn’t do it. But that didn’t stop the vitriol from coming.
“John Johnson (Ebony founder) would be turning in his grave,” read one comment from a reader. For some reason, that one stayed with me. Would he be? He was friends with Cosby, of course.
I admitted to CNN’s Brooke Baldwin that I hadn’t slept in two days in anticipation of the release. I knew that the pain, frustration and anger we held over the accusations against Cosby were deep and real. Wendy Williams asked me on camera if I felt physically intimidated by some of the backlash I was receiving. I responded half-jokingly by looking over both shoulders, and then explaining that it was exactly what I did walking out of my house to come to her studio.
After nearly a year of publically talking about the accusations and intently listening to whole swaths of black America debate the facts—and the feels—on that day in the parking lot, I was standing in front of a black woman who had actually been raped by Bill Cosby. Both of us already a mess from the service, we simply cried and held each other the way we both clearly needed. For about an hour, I listened to her story. Her young model-actress life. How they met. The what, when and where. All I could hear though, was the weight of her irreconcilable sense of guilt.
“I still feel so guilty,” she said, weeping. “I just feel like I really, honestly let black people down.”
She never wanted to tell. Not because it didn’t happen, but because “we need unity with our men.” She was sacrificing the self for the whole.
“Don’t say that! We are completely here for you,” I heard myself half-way lie. But is black America here for the victims of black men?
I re-posted that old Ebony cover on IG yesterday. And I’ve since confirmed that what I felt in the moment of his conviction was an emotional lack of clarity that actually made sense. Because there are no absolute winners here.
For Cosby’s victims, there may be some resolution, for his family—his stoic wife Camille in particular—there must be devastation especially now that Cosby is 80 and legally blind, and for his people, confusion. Looking at my Instagram, there is still palpable heartbreak and for some, frightening denial. Why our Dr. Huxtable? Why???
A few comments on my post right now:
“Fuck that metoo movement. I used to support it but its taking down successful black men and I’m not with it.
“This show will never be broken. It is one of the few things that was whole in Black history.”
“I don’t believe not one of these women.”
“We needed to see his shattered image. He is flawed! He is clearly capable of being twisted in spite of the contributions he’s given to our culture.”
“This cover is literally one of the bravest most amazing things done in media in the past few years.”
We were split and shattered by Bill Cosby. And I promise a single magazine cover didn’t create the maelstrom. After this verdict, the courage to face the truth about one black man and to really be “completely there” for his victims and for the countless other women who are sexually assaulted every year is our clear option.
Which way, black America? My profound hope is that with the Cosby conviction we have turned a page as a community. There was, sure enough, a time when we confused black genius, and the illusion of what is “respectable” with lived black decency, black integrity and black life.
Perhaps after yesterday, we’ll crack all the illusions that cover up great lies.
Andrea Constand, the woman whose sexual assault complaint against the television icon Bill Cosby led to his conviction, broke her long public silence with a short Twitter message Friday thanking the local community.
“A very profound and heartfelt thank you to the Commonwealth of PA, Montgomery County, for their service and sacrifices,” she wrote, seemingly addressing the district attorney’s office and the jury that on Thursday convicted Mr. Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting Ms. Constand.
“Congratulations,” she added. “Truth prevails.”
Following a high-profile trial like Mr. Cosby’s, the vindicated party traditionally makes the media rounds, appearing to discuss the case on the “Today” show or “Good Morning America.” Ms. Constand has not yet done so.
Outside the courtroom, where Ms. Constand testified that Mr. Cosby had drugged and molested her at his home in 2004, she has been reluctant to speak about the case. That may be due, in part, to the nondisclosure agreement she signed as part of her $3.38 million settlement she reached with Mr. Cosby in 2006.
Last year, a judge ruled that Mr. Cosby could pursue a lawsuit against Ms. Constand based on two Twitter posts she wrote in 2014.
(“I won’t go away, there is a lot more I will say,” she wrote in one.) But as the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse has gained influence, women who have agreed to settlements with powerful men — including Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly and Donald J. Trump — have broken their nondisclosure agreements, arguing that speaking out was more important.
Ms. Constand’s lawyer, Dolores Troiani, said by phone on Friday that she and her client were evaluating their options and the enforceability of the contract with Mr. Cosby.
“Obviously everyone in the world has sent me an email or text, but we’re just stepping back and seeing where we’re going to go,” Ms. Troiani said, referring to the extensive media requests for interviews with Ms. Constand. “I think we’re taking a breather, for one.”
At a news conference after the verdict on Thursday, Ms. Constand stood by, letting the Montgomery County district attorney, Kevin Steele, and Kristen Gibbons Feden, the special prosecutor on the case, speak about its importance.
Mr. Steele commended Ms. Constand for fighting through two trials. “She has been a major factor in a movement that has gone in the right direction, finally,” he said.
~ Former national security adviser says he is cooperating with special counsel probe
Former national-security adviser Mike Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to federal investigators about his calls with the Russian ambassador and other issues and said he is cooperating with prosecutors, a sign that the special counsel’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election is reaching deeper into President Donald Trump’s inner circle.
In a 45-minute hearing in a Washington federal court, Mr. Flynn admitted he misled Federal Bureau of Investigation agents about a series of calls he had last December with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, about sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama Administration and about a United Nations resolution critical of Israel.
Mr. Flynn also acknowledged in court documents filed Friday that he had detailed conversations with Trump transition officials about the calls, and that a “very senior member” of the transition team had directed his contacts over the U.N. issue. A person familiar with the matter said that individual is Jared Kushner, a top White House adviser and the president’s son-in-law.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Mr. Kushner, didn’t return requests for comment. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators interviewed Mr. Kushner in recent weeks, focusing their questions exclusively on his interactions with Mr. Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors said Friday that Mr. Flynn consulted several times with top Trump transition officials on his contacts with Russia, suggesting Mr. Mueller is closely scrutinizing other prominent Trump associates. But his ultimate targets, and the exact nature of any potential wrongdoing, remain unclear.
Mr. Mueller is six months into a wide-ranging investigation into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election and potential links between those efforts and the Trump campaign. In court documents, Mr. Mueller’s office said Mr. Flynn’s lies to the FBI impeded that investigation.
When asked by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras how he pleads to the charge against him, Mr. Flynn, flanked by his two lawyers, said softly, “Guilty, your honor.”
Given his cooperation, Mr. Flynn is expected to face at most six months in prison, depending on his “substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person who has committed an offense,” according to his plea agreement.
Prosecutors didn’t elaborate Friday on who else they may be looking at. Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty only to one count of lying to the FBI, but a “statement of the offense” filed in connection with his plea detailed additional wrongdoing, including lying on a regulatory form about his private work directed by Turkish government officials.
Mr. Mueller’s decision not to file more serious charges against Mr. Flynn led many legal experts to infer that Mr. Flynn is providing significant information to the investigation.
“Mueller would not have accepted an agreement to plead to a single charge absent an arrangement of some sort, and presumably that is Flynn’s truthful testimony about other matters within Mueller’s jurisdiction,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor who was a deputy to special counsel Kenneth Starr during his investigation of President Bill Clinton.
In a statement Friday, Mr. Flynn said, “I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right.”
He added: “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
Mr. Flynn, who was a high-profile campaign surrogate for Mr. Trump but who lasted in his White House post for less than a month, becomes the most senior Trump associate to face criminal charges in the special counsel investigation. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Mr. Flynn led the crowd in chanting “Lock her up!” in reference to Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. On Friday, protesters outside the courthouse chanted as Mr. Flynn left: “Lock him up!”
Documents filed in federal court Friday detail Mr. Flynn’s misstatements to the FBI during an interview last January and depict a group of incoming Trump officials concerned about the Obama administration’s new sanctions on Russia and trying to figure out how to react to them.
Mr. Flynn “falsely stated” to the FBI that he hadn’t asked the Russian ambassador to refrain from escalating a response to the sanctions, a senior prosecutor in Mr. Mueller’s office, Brandon Van Grack, said in court. In fact, Mr. Flynn had called a senior official of the Trump transition team on Dec. 29—the day the sanctions were announced—to discuss “what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian ambassador,” according to a statement filed in connection with Mr. Flynn’s plea.
The unnamed senior official was with “other senior members” of the transition team at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s golf club in Florida, the document said. The official and Mr. Flynn discussed the fact that members of the transition team at Mar-a-Lago “did not want Russia to escalate the situation,” the document said.
Among the transition officials who met with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago that day were Stephen Miller, K.T. McFarland, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, a Trump spokesman said at the time. Mr. Miller and Ms. Conway are now serving in the White House. Mr. Bannon and Mr. Priebus served as chief strategist and chief of staff, respectively, but were ousted over the summer. Ms. McFarland is Mr. Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Singapore.
“Immediately after his phone call,” Mr. Flynn called Mr. Kislyak and asked that Russia only respond “in a reciprocal manner,” the document said.
The next day, Dec. 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin released a statement that Russia wouldn’t take retaliatory measures, and Mr. Kislyak called Mr. Flynn on Dec. 31 to tell him Russia had “chosen not to retaliate in response to Flynn’s request.”
After his phone call, according to the document, Mr. Flynn spoke to “senior members” of the transition about his conversations with Mr. Kislyak and about Russia’s decision “not to escalate the situation.”
In addition to the sanctions issue, Mr. Flynn also lied about calls he made to “Russia and several other countries” about a U.N. resolution submitted by Egypt on Dec. 21, which criticized Israel’s construction of settlements in disputed territories.
Mr. Flynn “falsely stated” that he only asked on the calls about the countries’ position on the votes, the document said. In fact, “a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team directed Flynn” to contact the officials to “influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution,” the document said.
The document also said Mr. Flynn made “materially false statements” in a regulatory filing about his separate work for Turkish interests, including stating that his company “did not know whether or the extent to which” the Turkish government was behind the project.
Mr. Flynn is the fourth—and most prominent—figure to be publicly charged in Mr. Mueller’s investigation to date. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime associate who also worked with the campaign, Richard Gates, were indicted in October for prior work they did in Ukraine, unrelated to the Trump campaign.
Another adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian go-betweens.
Former FBI Director James Comey, whom Mr. Trump fired in May, has testified that Mr. Trump asked him to back off his investigation of Mr. Flynn, which the president denies.
Prosecutors’ references Friday to Mr. Flynn’s conversations with other Trump transition officials suggest Mr. Mueller is scrutinizing the actions of other high-profile figures in Mr. Trump’s orbit. Mr. Kushner said in a statement to Congress in July that, at Mr. Trump’s request, he served as the main point of contact for foreign countries during the transition.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday’s plea shows that a Trump associate was “negotiating with the Russians against U.S. policy and interests before Donald Trump took office and after it was announced that Russia had interfered in our election.”
She added, “It’s critical that we determine whether Flynn spoke with the Russians on his own initiative and who knew and approved of his actions.”
A statement from White House lawyer Ty Cobb played down the guilty plea, noting that Mr. Flynn was in the job less than a month and had “entered a guilty plea to a single count.”
Mr. Flynn’s false statements, Mr. Cobb added, “mirror” similar ones he made to Vice President Mike Pence about his Russian contacts earlier this year, which the White House has said resulted in his resignation. “The conclusion of this phase of the special counsel’s work demonstrates again that the special counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion,” Mr. Cobb said.
U.S. investigators began scrutinizing Mr. Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador after the two spoke in a series of phone calls during the presidential transition in December 2016, according to people familiar with the investigation.
During those calls, Mr. Flynn discussed the potential easing of U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia after the Trump administration came to power in January, current and former officials said at the time, citing transcripts of intercepted communications between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak.
DYLANN ROOF FOUND GUILTY OF 9 BLACK MURDERS - ALL LIVES MATTER:
THANK YOU NIKKI HALEY.
ROOF NEEDS THE DEATH PENALTY SENTENCE.
FORGIVENESS DOES NOT ELIMINATE CONSEQUENCES WHEN IT COMES TO ACTS OF PREMEDITATED MURDER.
Sources: Fox News, YouTube
***** DYLANN Roof convicted in Charleston church mass
A jury in South Carolina Thursday convicted Dylann Roof in the shootings that killed nine black church members during a Bible study in Charleston last year, a verdict that could lead to a death sentence for the self-avowed white supremacist.
The jury of nine white people and three black people deliberated less than two hours before returning a verdict, finding him guilty on all counts against him.
Roof, 22, faced 33 federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion.
Roof just stared ahead as the verdict was read, much as he has throughout the trial. Victims's relatives held hands and squeezed one another's arms.
One woman nodded her head every time the clerk said "guilty."
The same jury is set to return Jan. 3 to consider whether Roof should be sentenced to die for the June 2015 attack at Emanuel AME Church.
He is slated to face another death penalty trial in state court early next year.
Minutes after the verdict was read, Roof told U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel he wanted to represent himself during the penalty phase.
He said at the start of the trial that he wanted attorneys in the guilt phase, but not in the penalty phase.
His lawyers said in a court filing they feared he wanted to avoid embarrassing testimony that the defense might have presented to try to get a jury to spare his life.
"It is my hope that the survivors, the families & the people of South Carolina can find some peace in the fact that justice has been served," Gov. Nikki Haley tweeted.
The verdict came after days of emotional testimony from people who survived the shooting and witnessed the aftermath.
During closing arguments earlier in the day, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told jurors Roof waited until the Bible study group had its eyes closed for prayer before he opened fire.
After the recent Convictions of Jerry Sandusky and Roman Catholic Church Monsignor William J. Lynn, one thing is absolutely clear about the State of Pennsylvania.
The State cares Very Little about the Well being of Low Income Children, especially BLACK Low Income Children.
And that Powerful, Wealthy, Entitled WHITE Men who reside in Pennsylvania have been Afforded the Luxury of Sexually Abusing Low Income Children without Criminal Consequences for Decades.
I don't care what anyone else says if Pres. Obama were NOT in Office, Penn. State would NOT be facing a Major Civil Lawsuit for Protecting Sandusky.
Sandusky would NOT be facing LIFE in prison for Child Sex Abuse.
Monsignor William J. Lynn would NEVER have been Convicted of Child Endangerment due to his Cover Up of a Catholic Church Child Sex Abuse Ring.
Such recent examples of Justice for Children is another reason why the GOP is trying to Destroy Eric Holder and get him FIRED.
His heart pounded under his striped, maroon polo shirt as the one they call Alleged Victim No. 6 waited in a packed courtroom Friday night to hear the verdicts in the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case.
He is 25 now, lean and broad shouldered with short brown hair and big dark eyes. For years, he struggled with the fact that Sandusky, a local football hero, crossed the line with him in a locker room shower in 1998.
No. 6 was the only one of the accusers, the so-called "Sandusky 8," to come to court for the verdicts. He chewed gum with intensity, his jaws clenching and releasing as Sandusky, looking wan and bent in a brown sports jacket, lumbered into the courtroom shortly before 10 p.m.
The jurors took their seats, looking tired and sad. One woman appeared to be crying.
The young man's mother locked fingers with him with one hand, placed the other over his forearm and her head on his shoulder. She started to cry. Soon, they would hear whether there would be justice.
Count One: Guilty of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with Victim No. 1.
No. 6 smiled.
Count Two: Guilty again, of the same charge.
No. 6 nodded, and his smile grew broader.
Count Three: Guilty of indecent assault.
And so it went. Sandusky was convicted of 45 of 48 counts against him. They covered the gamut of child molestation -- everything from oral and anal sex to corrupting the morals of 10 boys over 15 years.
As the guilty verdicts tolled, a spectrum of emotions crossed the young man's face. He closed his eyes for a while, as if deep in prayer. He leaned forward when the jury foreman finally came to Counts 28, 29, 30 and 31, the ones that involved him.
"Not guilty," the foreman said for the first count, indecent assault, and No. 6 blinked with surprise.
But then, it was nothing but "guilty, guilty, guilty" -- of unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children.
His chest heaved, and No. 6 wiped tears from his eyes. His mother patted him on the shoulder. She looked at the jurors and mouthed the words, "Thank you."
And then, they both broke down and cried, clinging to each other as they have since May 3, 1993, the day Jerry Sandusky, then Penn State's defensive coordinator, took him into the football team's locker room showers and soaped him up.
"I don't think anybody really won," his mother said as Pennsylvania state troopers, prosecutors and agents with the state attorney general's office filed by to offer congratulations.
"I thought I'd be happy," she said, "but there's no joy. We all lost."
Lead prosecutor Joseph E. McGettigan II leaned over, said something in her son's ear and shook his hand. As if on cue, a loud cheer erupted in the square outside the courthouse. No. 6 glanced back, and then turned his head and smiled some more before collapsing into a sobbing group hug with his mother and sisters.
'I just rolled with it'
On June 14, a Thursday, he finally got to tell his story to a jury:
When he was 11 years old, No. 6 was the ultimate Penn State football fan. He met Jerry Sandusky at the charity Sandusky founded for at-risk kids, The Second Mile. He was thrilled when Sandusky paid him a little attention, asked him to come work out.
Sandusky picked him up in his car. The coach chatted with his mother for a bit about Penn State football, and then he got into the car with him.
Suddenly, there was a hand on his leg. According to prosecutors, that was Sandusky's opening gambit with the boys he molested. It was as if he was testing their tolerance for his touch.
"He reached over and put his hand next to my knee," No. 6 said. "I remember feeling that it was a little odd."
He pulled his leg away, but remembers, "I just rolled with it." After all, it was Jerry Sandusky.
At the team's locker room, he was allowed to try on the players' uniforms, their shoulder pads and their helmets. He peeked inside Joe Paterno's office and was given a pair of socks.
"I was thrilled with that," he said.
They played "Polish bowling," rolling a ball of sports tape on a hallway floor. Then, he recalled, Sandusky showed him some wrestling moves. He said it made him feel uncomfortable, but he didn't protest.
"It was Jerry Sandusky," and he didn't want to make him mad, he said.
They worked out for 15, maybe 20 minutes, and No. 6 learned how to use the weight machines.
"I remember him saying. 'It's time to shower,'" No. 6 recalled, "and I wasn't even sweating yet." Again, he felt uncomfortable because only his parents had seen him naked.
Sandusky stepped under a shower, and turned on the one next to him, warming it up for the boy. He told jokes to loosen him up, calling himself "the Tickle Monster" and tickled him under the arms, and on the chest and abdomen.
The coach grabbed him from behind, in a bear hug, and said, "I'm going to squeeze your guts out."
By now, he recalled, he was getting "pretty grossed out."
He explained, "I remember seeing his chest hair right next to my face and thinking, 'This is icky.'"
Sandusky soaped him up and lifted him under the showerhead.
No. 6 said his memory went blank after that. "I don't even remember being put down," he said. "I got home somehow, and everything else just blacked out."
His mother saw his wet hair, and he told her he'd taken a shower. He went into his room and closed the door, he said. She followed him a few minutes later and "I told her bits and pieces. It really wasn't a big deal to me."
He added, "I didn't want to get him in trouble. I still wanted to hang out with him and go to the games. He told me he had a computer and he would invite me over, and I could sit on his lap and play with the computer. And I still wanted to do that."
He never did spend time alone with Sandusky.
His mother called the authorities, and Detective Ronald Schreffler investigated for the Penn State campus police. While he was being questioned, No. 6 recalled, "I felt I did something wrong. ... I was a very small kid then."
Schreffler and the boy's mother set a trap. She confronted Sandusky and allowed authorities to record the conversation. She tried to make him promise not to take showers with young boys. He wouldn't agree, and so she told him he couldn't spend time alone with her son anymore.
According to testimony, Sandusky responded: "I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won't get it from you. I wish I were dead."
Schreffler testified that he felt charges should be filed, but Roy Gricar, the Centre County district attorney at the time, disagreed. Gricar later disappeared, and he was declared legally dead last year.
No. 6 said he continued to occasionally see Sandusky over the years, but was never again alone with him. He sent Thanksgiving and Father's Day cards. He had lunch on campus last year with Sandusky and his wife, Dottie.
In January 2011, the police came knocking again. By this time, he was studying at a Bible college in Colorado. He agreed to cooperate.
He thought about what happened so many years ago, things he had banished from his mind.
By this time, he said, his perception of what happened had changed.
"I saw it was inappropriate," he said. "I feel violated."
And now with a jury agreeing that what happened to him in the showers at Penn State was wrong, perhaps vindicated at last.
Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse Friday night and faces spending the rest of his life in state prison.
His attorney said he would Appeal the Verdict.
Sandusky's attorney, Joseph Amendola, asked Judge John Cleland to allow Sandusky to be released on house arrest, but Cleland summarily rejected the request, saying: "Bail is revoked. Mr. Sandusky is remanded to the custody of the sheriff."
Sandusky was immediately led out of the courthouse in handcuffs as a large crowd of onlookers cheered. Sentencing was set for late September.
Sandusky, 68, the former longtime defensive coordinator for the Penn State University football team, had denied all 48 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.
Two grand jury reports accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children, for sexual relationships.
Several of the counts are so-called mandated felonies, meaning Cleland has no discretion in sentencing.
NBC News reported that he faces a minimum of 60 years in prison.
Cleland, who is a senior judge in McKean County, was brought to Centre County to oversee the trial after local judges recused themselves.
Amendola, who was interrupted by hecklers outside the courthouse several times, said he had expected the outcome and respected the verdict of the jurors, who didn’t speak to reporters afterward.
Amendola said he believed Sandusky had legitimate grounds for appeal, saying his client had "an uphill battle" because of the extensive pretrial publicity.
"We said we were attempting to climb Mount Everest from the bottom of the mountain. Obviously, we didn't make it," he said.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly, whose office prosecuted Sandusky, said, "A serious child predator ... has been held accountable for his crimes."
Kelly thanked the victims, who she said "came forward to bravely testify in this trial and to finally put a stop to the crimes that were committed."
"We hope that our search for justice will help them and perhaps others looking on nearby and afar," she said.
Grace Gordon, 49, of Bellefonte, also welcomed the verdict but lamented the damage the trial had done to Bellefonte and Centre County.
"It's hard. It really is, to see a small town torn apart like this," said Gordon, who was outside the courthouse with her 23-year-old son and his girlfriend.
Gordon said her father, wrho worked with Sandusky at Penn State, "would have just been devastated to know about this."
"You'd never, ever have dreamed that he'd be that kind of person," Gordon said. "What he did to those kids is just horrendous."
The university that Sandusky served for decades said in a statement late Friday that "we have tremendous respect for the men who came forward to tell their stories publicly.
No verdict can undo the pain and suffering caused by Mr. Sandusky, but we do hope this judgment helps the victims and their families along their path to healing."
The university said it would seek to "fairly ... compensate" the victims and invited them to participate in a program to "facilitate the resolution of claims against the University arising out of Mr. Sandusky's conduct."
It said it intended to get in contact with lawyers for the victims "in the near future."
A trial that riveted the nation
The trial, which opened June 11, culminated months of intense attention that led to the firing of head coach Joe Paterno, who won more games than any other major college football coach in history, many of them with Sandusky at his side.
Paterno died exactly five months ago, a few weeks after the Penn State Board of Trustees dismissed him for not having done enough to stop Sandusky's abuse.
Jurors heard often-graphic testimony from eight of the 10 victims whose accounts were included in two grand jury reports.
They told how Sandusky would first win their trust by giving them gifts and taking them on trips with the football team before progressing to hugging, kissing, increasingly sexual touching and, in some cases, oral and anal sex.
In a rare occurrence in an abuse trial, prosecutors also presented the testimony of a corroborating eyewitness — Sandusky's former Penn State coaching colleague Michael McQueary, who said that he saw a young boy, identified in the first grand jury report as "Victim 2," in a Penn State shower with Sandusky.
McQueary said the boy had his hands against the wall and that Sandusky was standing up against him from behind. He said he heard a "skin-on-skin smacking sound" and that he had "no doubt" that Sandusky was engaging in anal sex with the boy.
Because they were sequestered, without access to computers, phones or any other way to hear news coverage, the jury of seven women and five men wouldn't have heard newer, potentially damaging information from two other accusers that emerged after they began deliberations.
Sandusky's adopted son Matt said he had been prepared to testify that he, too, was a victim of abuse by his father, according to a statement issued Thursday by attorneys who said they are representing the younger Sandusky.
(NBC News and msnbc.com generally do not identify victims of sexual assaults, but Matt Sandusky chose to identify himself in a public statement released through his attorneys.)
Amendola said Friday night that Jerry Sandusky abandoned plans to testify in his own defense because of the prospect of damaging rebuttal testimony by his son.
Nor would they have heard the account of Travis Weaver, 30, of Ohio, who attended Second Mile camps as a youth. Weaver told NBC News in an interview that aired Thursday night that Sandusky performed oral sex on him in the upstairs bedroom of the Sanduskys' home.
Weaver testified to one of the two grand juries but wasn't mentioned in the grand jury reports or called as a witness during the trial.
The end of the trial doesn't mean the case is over.
Two former top Penn State officials, former Athletic Director Timothy Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, face perjury charges in connection with their grand jury testimony in December, in which prosecutors alleged that concealed what they knew about Sandusky's conduct.
Law enforcement sources have told NBC News that former Penn State President Graham Spanier, who was fired in November, was under investigation for possible similar charges.
Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former cardinal’s aide, was found Guilty Friday of Endangering Children, becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.
The 12-member jury acquitted Monsignor Lynn, of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, of conspiracy and a second count of endangerment after a trial that prosecutors and victims rights groups called a turning point in the abuse scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church.
The single Guilty verdict was widely seen as a victory for the district attorney’s office, which has been investigating the archdiocese aggressively since 2002, and it was hailed by victim advocates who have argued for years that senior church officials should be held accountable for concealing evidence and transferring predatory priests to unwary parishes.
Monsignor Lynn, 61, sat impassively as the jury foreman announced the verdicts, but relatives behind him were in tears. Judge M. Teresa Sarmina of the Common Pleas Court revoked his bail, and the monsignor stood up, removed his clerical jacket and was led by sheriff’s deputies to a holding cell area. His conviction, on the 13th day of deliberations, could result in a prison term of three-and-a-half to seven years; sentencing is set for Aug. 13.
The trial sent a sobering message to church officials and others overseeing children around the country. “I think that bishops and chancery officials understand that they will no longer get a pass on these types of crimes,” said Nicholas P. Cafardi, a professor of law at Duquesne University, a canon lawyer and frequent church adviser. “Priests who sexually abuse youngsters and the chancery officials who enabled it can expect criminal prosecution.”
The three-month trial cast a harsh light on the top leadership of the archdiocese, especially Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, whom Monsignor Lynn advised. Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1988 to 2003, he died in January, but his name was invoked frequently during the testimony. Monsignor Lynn’s own lawyer told the jury that “in this trial, you have seen the dark side of the church.”
The revelations of sexual abuse and seeming official indifference have tormented an archdiocese that was long known for imperious leaders and an insular camaraderie among its priests. It has also been costly: the financially ailing archdiocese said recently that legal fees and internal investigations spurred by the abuse cases had cost $11.6 million since early 2011.
Cardinal Bevilacqua and his aides, the prosecutors argued, sought to avoid scandal and costly lawsuits at almost any price, putting the reputation of the archdiocese ahead of protecting vulnerable children.
The archdiocese issued a conciliatory statement on Friday, saying that “the lessons of the last year have made our church a more vigilant guardian of our people’s safety,” and offering a “heartfelt apology to all victims of clerical abuse.”
Monsignor Lynn served as secretary for clergy for the 1.5 million-member archdiocese from 1992 to 2004, recommending priest assignments and investigating abuse complaints. Prosecutors presented a flood of evidence that Monsignor Lynn had not acted strongly to keep suspected molesters away from children, let alone to report them to law enforcement.
But the length of the jurors’ deliberations and the mixed verdict showed the difficulty of placing criminal blame on one church official. The jurors also wrestled with the definition of conspiracy, and with the question of criminal intent on the part of Monsignor Lynn, who presented himself as an affable man who tried his best. Nevertheless, the Philadelphia district attorney, R. Seth Williams, said Friday that the verdict had sent a lesson to the nation. “This monumental case will change the way business is done in many institutions,” he said.
Monsignor Lynn’s lawyers are expected to appeal.
Victims advocates said that they hoped the conviction would embolden prosecutors in other states to investigate senior church officials, and predicted that it would lead to more victim lawsuits.
“The guilty verdict sends a strong and clear message that shielding and enabling predator priests is a heinous crime that threatens families, communities and children, and must be punished as such,” said Barbara Dorris, of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
But such proceedings may often be limited, legal experts said, by statutes of limitations.
The prosecutors in this case faced just such a hurdle. A second priest, the Rev. James J. Brennan, 49, was tried with Monsignor Lynn, charged with attempted rape and endangerment of a youth, but the defense challenged the accuser’s credibility.
To convict, the jury had to find that Father Brennan had not only abused that boy but continued to put children at risk over subsequent years of ministry. The prosecutors were unable to find later victims. The jury said it was deadlocked on the two counts against Father Brennan, and Judge Sarmina declared a mistrial on those charges.
Monsignor Lynn’s defense hinged on his claim that he had tried to curb abuses, but that only the cardinal had the authority to remove priests. One crucial piece of evidence was a list drawn up in 1994 by Monsignor Lynn of some three dozen active priests who had been credibly accused of sex abuses. Before the trial began, a lawyer for the archdiocese turned over to the court a frayed folder including a copy of the list, saying it had been found in a locked safe.
Prosecutors called it a smoking gun. One of those named in 1994 as “guilty of sexual misconduct with minors” was the former Rev. Edward V. Avery, whose continued tenure in ministry was at the heart of Monsignor Lynn’s trial. Mr. Avery, now 69, spent six months in a church psychiatric center in 1993 after an abuse episode, and doctors said he should be kept away from children. But Monsignor Lynn allowed him to live in a parish rectory.
In 1999, Mr. Avery undressed with a 10-year-old altar boy, told him that God loved him and had him engage in oral sex. Mr. Avery pleaded guilty to the assault just before the trial began and was sentenced to prison.
In 2002, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a national “zero-tolerance” policy, pledging to remove any priest facing credible accusations. But serious lapses have occurred, including in Philadelphia, where a grand jury in 2011 asserted that as many as 37 priests with past accusations remained active in ministry.
Last summer Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, then the head of the Denver Archdiocese, took over in Philadelphia, and in May he announced the removal of five priests named in the grand jury report. Three others were cleared and investigations continue into other cases.
The bishop of the diocese in Kansas City, Mo., Robert W. Finn, is awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges of violating the state’s mandatory reporting requirement by allegedly waiting six months to tell the police that a priest had taken lewd photographs of girls.
Child Rapist/ Deviant Sexual Pervert and Former Assistant Penn State Football Coach Jerry Sandusky was Convicted tonight by a Jury of his Peers, on 45 out of 48 Counts of Child Sex Abuse.
Sandusky who even Sexually Molested his Own Adopted Son, now faces LIFE In Prison. Hallejuah! And Thank God For Pres. Obama!
Because Were It Not For The Obama Administration This Intense, Thorough Investigation & Criminal Conviction Would NEVER Have Taken Place!
That Is Another Reason Why The GOP Is Trying To Destroy Eric Holder.
Now Its Time To Sue Penn State For Hundreds Of Millions In Restitution & Damages! Now its Time To Vote Out Of Office The Entire Pennsylvania State General Assembly For Refusing To Protect Children!
Now Its Time To Help Sandusky's Victims & Ensure This NEVER Happens Again! Now Its Time To Consider Cutting Off Penn State University's Federal Financial Aid Until They Straighten Out The Athletic Department Or Close Penn State's Doors.
This Conviction Is Vindication For Every Child Ever Sexually Molested By Perverts Like Sandusky.
Jerry Sandusky Is GUILTY!!!! GUILTY!!!! GUILTY OF 45 COUNTS OF CHILD SEX ABUSE!!! DON'T DROP THE SOAP!!! YOU PERVERT!
Now Its Time For George Zimmerman To Get What Is Due Him As Well.
Thank You Lord! Save The Children & Equal Justice For Trayvon Martin!!!
Jerry Sandusky was convicted Friday of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years, accusations that had sent shock waves through the college campus known as Happy Valley and led to the firing of Penn State's beloved Hall of Fame coach, Joe Paterno.
Sandusky, a 68-year-old retired defensive coach who was once Paterno's heir apparent, was found guilty of 45 of 48 counts. He faces life in prison at sentencing, which is weeks away.
Sandusky showed little emotion as the verdict was read. The judge ordered him to be taken to the county jail to await sentencing in about three months.
Eight young men testified in a central Pennsylvania courtroom about a range of abuse, from kissing and massages to groping, oral sex and anal rape. For two other alleged victims, prosecutors relied on testimony from a university janitor and then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary, whose account of a sexual encounter between Sandusky and a boy of about 10 ultimately led to the Paterno's dismissal and the university president's ouster.
Sandusky did not take the stand in his own defense.
He had repeatedly denied the allegations, and his defense suggested that his accusers had a financial motive to make up stories, years after the fact. His attorney also painted Sandusky as the victim of overzealous police investigators who coached the alleged victims into giving accusatory statements.
But jurors believed the testimony that, in the words of lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan III, Sandusky was a "predatory pedophile."
One accuser testified that Sandusky molested him in the locker-room showers and in hotels while trying to ensure his silence with gifts and trips to bowl games. He also said Sandusky had sent him "creepy love letters."
Another spoke of forced oral sex and instances of rape in the basement of Sandusky's home, including abuse that left him bleeding. He said he once tried to scream for help, knowing that Sandusky's wife was upstairs, but figured the basement must be soundproof.
Another, a foster child, said Sandusky warned that he would never see his family again if he ever told anyone what happened.
And just hours after the case went to jurors, lawyers for one of Sandusky's six adopted children, Matt, said he had told authorities that his father abused him.
Matt Sandusky had been prepared to testify on behalf of prosecutors, the statement said. The lawyers said they arranged for Matt Sandusky to meet with law enforcement officials but did not explain why he didn't testify.
"This has been an extremely painful experience for Matt and he has asked us to convey his request that the media respect his privacy," the statement said. It didn't go into details about his allegations.
Defense witnesses, including Jerry Sandusky's wife, Dottie, described his philanthropic work with children over the years, and many spoke in positive terms about his reputation in the community. Prosecutors had portrayed those efforts as an effective means by which Sandusky could camouflage his molestation as he targeted boys who were the same age as participants in The Second Mile, a charity he founded in the 1970s for at-risk youth.
Sandusky's arrest in November led the Penn State trustees to fire Paterno as head coach, saying he exhibited a lack of leadership after fielding a report from McQueary. The scandal also led to the ouster of university president Graham Spanier, and criminal charges against two university administrators for failing to properly report suspected child abuse and perjury.
The two administrators, athletic director Tim Curley and now-retired vice president Gary Schultz, are fighting the allegations and await trial.
Sandusky had initially faced 52 counts of sex abuse. The judge dropped four counts during the trial, saying two were unproven, one was brought under a statute that didn't apply and another was duplicative.
A Verdict in the Hudson Murder Trial has been reached. Media organizations await the announcement. Do I believe William Balfour did it alone? NO! Is this a rushed Cover Up? Yes I believe it is.
A Chicago jury found William Balfour, Jennifer Hudson's former brother-in-law, guilty Friday on three counts of first-degree murder and four other counts related to the 2008 slayings of the entertainer's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.
He will be sentenced to life without parole; Illinois has no death penalty.
Hudson, who was in the courtroom with her sister Julia and fiance, David Otunga, broke down in tears as she heard the verdict. Otunga said, "Yes," and put his arm around her.
In addition to murder, Balfour was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping, home invasion, residential burglary and possession of a stolen vehicle.
A public defender for Balfour said his legal team would file a motion for a new trial on June 8 and then file a notice of appeal. "I do feel there were very strong issues of law in this case that need to be looked at by an appellate court," Amy Thompson told reporters outside the courthouse. "So we do have some hope."
CNN Legal Analyst Sunny Hostin expressed surprise at the verdict. "This wasn't a slam-dunk case," she said, citing the lack of forensic evidence.
The case went to the jury Thursday, after heated closing arguments Wednesday set a tense tone.
In the middle of the afternoon on Friday, the jurors sent Judge Charles Burns notes saying they were split and asking to see testimony about cell phone records showing that Balfour's phone was near the site of the killings at the time they took place.
The split was then nine to three in favor of conviction, said juror Jacinta Gholston, who works for a Chicago-based chocolate company. "There were three of us who just needed to see the picture a little clearer," she told reporters after the verdict.
The records proved key. An hour later, jurors told the judge they had reached a verdict. "Once we got those holes filled, we were able to come to a unanimous decision," Gholston said.
Juror Paula Halcomb, a math teacher in the suburbs southwest of Chicago, also cited the cell phone records as persuasive. "We realized that he could not be in two places at one time," she said.
Hudson's testimony played no role in the jury's decision. "She didn't really say anything," Halcomb said.
Hudson, who was called as the prosecution's first of more than 80 witnesses, broke down in tears several times on the stand as she recalled her family.
"None of us wanted her to marry him," Hudson said of her sister's decision to marry Balfour. "We did not like how he treated her.
"Where he was, I tried not to be," she said.
"This wasn't a case about Jennifer Hudson," Gholston said of the entertainer, who attended the trial each day. "For us, her celebrity had nothing to do with it."
Jury Foreman Robert Smith, 42, who works for Chicago Public Schools, said the decision was an easy one for him. "I was pretty much certain from the beginning," he said of Balfour's guilt. "To me, everything connected."
Asked what he would tell Hudson, he said, "Honest, I don't really have anything to say to her. But I just hope that she can kind of put this behind her and just get on with the rest of her life."
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said she had spoken with Jennifer and her sister Julia Hudson after the verdict. "They are relieved and we hope that the verdict gives them some sense of justice."
The singer was "was very emotional about the verdict, as you can well imagine, and so was her sister and the rest of the family -- emotional but relieved."
Defense lawyer Thompson had argued that police had homed in on Balfour rather than conducting a full investigation.
"In their mind, this wasn't a whodunnit," she said.
No DNA evidence pointed to Balfour, said Thompson, who also questioned police work in the case, describing a set of keys that she said surfaced on an evidence list a month after the slayings.
"Those keys show how desperate the state was. They resorted to this. ... My client is an innocent man," she said.
But prosecutors argued that physical and circumstantial evidence linked Balfour to the killings and described as "absurd" defense claims that police may have planted evidence or been part of a conspiracy to frame Balfour.
Prosecutor Jim McKay told jurors that there was a "tsunami of circumstantial evidence."
"The circumstantial facts of this case are drowning this guy in guilt," he said.
Cook County prosecutor Jennifer Bagby said in her closing argument that Balfour had threatened to kill the family of Julia Hudson.
"If you leave me, I'll kill you. I'll kill your family first. You'll be the last to die," he had said, according to Bagby.
"He went in that house for one reason, and one reason only, to carry out that threat," Bagby told jurors.
Balfour was accused of fatally shooting Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and the singer's brother, Jason Hudson, 29, in their Chicago home in October 2008.
The body of Hudson's nephew, Julian King, was found three days later in an abandoned vehicle.
Prosecutors portrayed Balfour as a jealous man who murdered the three in a rage at the thought that his wife had a boyfriend.
In her closing argument, Bagby said Balfour shot Hudson's mother as she tried to defend herself with a broom.
"He fired that gun at her over and over and over," Bagby said. McKay called Balfour "a true coward."
"He shoots a 57-year-old grandmother in the back. He shoots a 29-year-old man in his sleep. He shoots a 7-year-old twice in the head," McKay told jurors. "The family, the community, the city, the country demand justice." In the trial, 83 witnesses testified over 11 days.
The crimes took place a year after Hudson, who rose to fame as a contestant on "American Idol," won an Oscar for her role in the movie "Dreamgirls."
In a recent interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, Hudson reflected on the life of her mother.
"My mother was a very wise and strong person. I feel like she raised us well, and she prepared me well, and so that's what I live by," she said.
Her career has continued to blossom and remains varied since her relatives' deaths.
Recent milestones include penning a memoir detailing her struggles with her weight; being cast as Nelson Mandela's ex-wife, Winnie, in an upcoming movie; releasing a new album; and singing a well-received tribute to Whitney Houston at the Grammy Awards in February.
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